Everyone within your organization wants sales and marketing to work together like a well-oiled machine. This is especially true for CEOs and other executive leadership—and for good reason

According to a recent LinkedIn study, 65% of business leaders believe a lack of collaboration could directly lead to missed business opportunities.

But we all know it’s not as simple as telling the two teams they should work together. As a senior leader, you play an active a role in making sure collaboration exists. There are things you can do to strengthen the collaboration between your sales and marketing teams. The same LinkedIn study found that leadership actively encouraging collaboration is the number one characteristic of organizations with strong alignment.

3 Ways to Strengthen Collaboration Between Sales & Marketing

So, what can you do as a senior leader to support greater collaboration between sales and marketing? Here are a few tactics to consider:

Provide clarity around business objectives. Clarity allows sales and marketing to focus on the goals and objectives that will help you get where you ultimately want to go. Without absolute clarity on the business objectives or specific products/service lines you want to grow, both sales and marketing are left guessing what will actually move the needle.

Get buy-in from leaders on both sides of the business. Problems arise when one side of the business (sales or marketing) feels left out of the conversation around your business development strategies. Getting buy-in from key stakeholders on both sides of the business not only prevents one side of the business from feeling handcuffed by something they didn’t agree to, but it also gets people excited about coming together around a common goal.

Help teams stay focused when things get tough. There will be times when things go wrong or when it looks like you’re not going to hit your goal. In those times, it’s your job as a senior leader to help both teams stay focused on working together to reach the agreed-upon objectives. Some marketing initiatives take time. Sometimes, you lose a sale for reasons outside of your control. Submitting to the pressures to shift gears and respond to every varied outcome is a great way to give everyone whiplash that leads to burnout.

While you may not be involved in the day-to-day activities of your sales and marketing teams, you set the tone for the collaboration that is created between the two teams. Embracing these ideas will allow you to create greater trust between the two teams, build a track record of results, and create an environment optimized for success.